AGARTALA, Oct 24 (TIWN): Tripura Ex-Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has met the injured TSR Jawans at GB hospital on Wednesday who were injured in an accident on October 22.

Being asked by media, Manik Sarkar said that he talked to the injured Jawans and their family members at GB hospital. Many Jawans have been released from the hospital already but two Jawans are seriously injured and thus sent to other states. Sarkar however, avoided media to deliver any political statement in this regard. 

It can be recalled here, 29 troopers of Tripura State Rifles (TSR) bound for poll-related duties in Chhatisgarh have been injured after their bus fell into a deep gorge on Monday night. The bus rolled down into an approximately 250 feet deep gorge at the Baramura hill ranges in Tripura while negotiating a sharp turn.

Around 800 TSR jawans, including the 29 troopers, were headed to Agartala in different vehicles to board a Chhatisgarh-bound train. All the 29 injured, including three critical ones, had been shifted to the (government-run) Govind Ballabh Pant Medical College and Hospital here for treatment and later two referred to Kolkata. 

The 90-seat Chhattisgarh assembly elections would be held in two phases on November 12 and 20. The TSR were earlier sent to Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Nagaland and Mizoram on poll security duties. The TSR battalions, trained in anti-insurgency operations, were constituted in March 1984 to deal with terrorism. It is modelled on the pattern of Border Security Force and Assam Rifles. 

TSR carrier Bus's brake-failure has been identified as the primary cause behind the critical accident on Baramura hilly zone's highways which left around 29Tripura State Rifles (TSR) Jawans injured on Monday latenight. The bus bearing number 04-1137 was carrying TSR Jawans of 8th Battalion towards Agartala Railway Station.